Thursday, June 07, 2007

sleepless

charge the day with harboring a fugitive
noise sits- quietly hidden by silence
if your chair offends you call it a throne
gain a gift for naming- create reality

noise sits- quietly hidden by silence
worship power you don’t create
gain a gift for naming- create reality
i put my hand up waiting for God to call on me

worship power you don’t create
who is dawn’s mistress
i put my hand up waiting for God to call on me
did she just come or just leave

who is dawn’s mistress
perfume, cologne, satin and silk
did she just come or just leave
spider’s web of smell and touch

perfume, cologne, satin and silk
hope floats to perjure fate
spider’s web of smell and touch
we argue delicately into the night
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10 comments:

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Fabulous, Russell. Would enjoy heraing you read this one aloud. Hope things are well with you.

5:54 AM
Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Don! I've really go to get off my duff and do some podcasting. I like pantoums, used to write a lot more of them. You're absolutely right, they can be very interesting to listen to. Things are fine with me, thanks for asking, I hope all is well with you too. Thanks for the great comment.

7:05 AM
ozymandiaz said...

Really enjoyed this. fun read. it makes insomnia seem not so bad though, belying perhaps your meaning.

10:06 AM
Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Ozy! I don't think any perhaps pleasant passage of time could be contradictory to the intent here. It just make an interesting additional element. Thanks for that ruminative comment.

11:49 AM
Pat Paulk said...

Had to learn what a pantoum was. Like Don I would love to hear this read. I can see your hand waving in the air waiting to be called on. Or, was that a light saber?

1:33 PM
Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Pat! That rolling rhythm that comes from a progressive cycle of repeating lines has a somewhat mesmerising efect. I'll learn podcasting yet! Thanks for the great comment, my friend.

10:05 PM
Rethabile said...

Sounds very musical. May try one of these one of these days. Until now I'd never seen a pantoum before.

2:17 PM
Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks rethabile! It's an old Malaysian poetry form. They're fun but challenging. Let me know when you give one a try. I'd like to read it.

6:33 PM
Anonymous said...

I've always been hesitant to try a pantoum, but you make it look easy to work those lines into a cohesive whole. I concur with everyone else - pantoums simply have to be read aloud. As far as podcasting goes - I'm slowly putting together a selection of resources for beginners to poetry podcasting at speaking of poetry. You might find some useful links there, though it's still pretty bare cupboard.

5:59 AM
Russell Ragsdale said...

Wow Deb your spoken poetry site is a gas! I believe poetry to be a performing art and have been cutting Audacity files on my poems for some time. If I could find out how to put them on my blog, I'm afraid you couldn't get me to shut up again.

Thanks for the words of praise, pantoums can be fun - I hope you'll try one soon. I'm going to add your site to my links, I hope you don't mind.

9:41 AM

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